Wow, your screwed. I'm at a loss for once. I suppose I would build up a wall, sitting on the new floor, up maybe 16" and out maybe 6" reinforce with rebar and anchored to the exiting wall and floor. It wouldn't really be structural but would certainly keep the dirt from under the foundation from pouring out.
Why didn't the guy stop when he realized he was undermining your foundation? Why didn't you stop him before he got too far? Just curious.
I guess I'm having trouble picturing this... where is the exposed soil exactly?
Banty
Hello to group:
Well, I made a big mistake. I hired a contractor to dig out the basement floor 18", install a perimeter drain, put down a compacted stone bed and water barrier, then pour a new cement floor.
The floor came out great. Sump works fine.
Problem is, the contractor assured me that I had enough foundation to do this project. There wasn't.
Now I have about 8" of exposed soil at the floor! What can I do to shore this up before the dirt underneath the foundation walls washes out?
I thought of putting in rebar and puring a pony wall, but maybe thats overkill.
Suggestions?
Wow, if I'm understanding correctly, you need to report that imbecile asap and get him back out to fix it gratis. Unless you told him it was OK to do that? Reread the contract: You might have a leg to stand on there! You might look at what's on the bulding-permit paperwork, too. I think he screwed up big time unless I'm not understanding the situation! I wonder if that's an occupancy issue down the road?
You had the floor "lowered" to give you more head room in the basement?
When the bottom of the footing started to be exposed, that was the time to stop.
What you have now is a perimeter foundation wall "supported" by a sliver of unconfined soil. I assume this is a realtively recent condition?
How thick was the floor slab made & how much steel?
You could form up a stub wall around the edge of the slab up about 16" or so & dowel into the existing wall......not an ideal condtion but short of pouring another foot of concrete?
Better get a civil engineer out to take a look at the condition
cheers Bob
Wow. So are we all undersanding you right?!?
I think if it were my house (which it isn't, b/c I would never let it get that far).., I'd do one of two things:
Pour 8'' of fill down (whatever is appropriate: 6" gravel + 2" sand, or something, compacted real well), then put down a new 4" concrete floor on top, bringing your floor back up to 6" above the bottom of the footer.
Alternatively, I'd do your stem wall idea, but make the wall 16" thick and 16" high, and pin it very securely to both the existing wall and the new floor. This is a distant second place, though, because it is unlikely the new floor perimeter was meant to take any significant load. And, it would be a real pain to get them pinned together real well -- I suppose you'd have a lot of drilling to do -- hundreds of holes, at least.
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